Liberal Candidate Jackie Tegart 2020 BC Election

Jackie Tegart is the Liberal Candidate for the Fraser Nicola riding in the 2020 British Columbian Election. Jackie has been the incumbent MLA for the last seven years. Jackie lives in Ashcroft and during the last 3 years has become the head if the Liberal caucus committee at the legislative assembly.

Jackie sits down down with civic journalist Gareth Smart of the HUB Online Network. When asked about some of the things that Jackie would like to do in the immediate area (not necessarily in the whole riding) Jackie spoke about the Mcabee fossil bed site, and the promise to bolster the funds for construction by two million dollars. The Mcabee fossil site has been in the works since 2017 when several indigenous groups approached the Government (who owns the property) and asked how the site can be re-opened and used for tours and research. According to Deb Arnott a Mcabee fossil site advocate says "that two million dollars would bolster construction and could speed up the process by several years".

Jackie was asked about how the Liberal party strategized and stayed in communication. She said that "all of the candidates and Andrew Wilkinson (the leader of the BC Liberal party) meet daily via Zoom to see what everyone is doing and how they can be supported".

When asked about the need for rural broadband which become a campaign point several provincial and federal elections ago, Jackie said that "they has always been trying to get better connection is the rural areas, especially during COVID-19 when several children are extremely affected by needing to do their schooling from home, and they are still trying to work something out but there is only so much that politicians can do when it come to the internet companies".

Jackie was asked about some of the ups and downs of campaigning this time around. She cited that a major issue has been not being able to go door knocking, so they have had to change their tried and true strategies and talk with voters over the phone and via email instead. One of the fun things that they have done is a car rally where Jackie and Andrew Wilkinson stood in Merritt BC and had several cars drive by and honk showing their support "which was a lot of fun".

Jackie was also asked about simply the fact that we are in an election, she said that "all of the parties had agreed to not politicize the pandemic, which John Horgan and the NDP has not respected and that this shouldn't be taking place at this time". She continued by saying "this election which has a record number of mail in ballots, which will be counted for several days after the election, guarantees that while we are trying to figure out who has won, that means that the people of BC are without Provincial Government help for at least two months during a pandemic".

ICBC is a big talking point for the campaign of the Liberal party during this election. The Liberals are promising to end the ICBC "monopoly" and allow other insurance companies join the market and provide choice to the citizens of British Columbia.

There was a lot of talk about how the current NDP government has failed the people of BC, some of example of this is: financially during the CIVID-19 pandemic, and the people that are facing the Opioid crisis.